System for measuring the exposure time of the coverage offered by an insurance policy

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a system which can be used to measure information corresponding to the term of insurance contracts in units of time of less than one day, using devices which are installed in the vehicles (or in other elements which require a mechanical or electrical motor or which are controlled by an electronic system), which are disposed at the insurance company&#39;s premises and which are in the possession of the policy holders.

PURPOSE OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to provide a system for measuring theinformation corresponding to the term of insurance contracts in units oftime of less than one day by means of devices installed in the vehicles(or in other elements requiring a mechanical engine or electrical motorfor the use thereof or whose operation is controlled by an electronicsystem), at the insurance company's premises and held by the policyholders.

The system also comprises the development of a process whereby it ispossible to download from the Internet the information that allowsrecharging again the amount of available hours of insurance.

BACKGROUND

To date Insurance Companies establish the term of their contracts usingthe day as the time measurement unit. Hence, when they issue an annualterm policy, they refer to the expression “365 days”.

This practice implies a disadvantage for the policyholder of, forexample, an automobile insurance policy. If such policyholder were totravel and be forced to leave his car parked at a parking lot forseveral days, the Insurance Company would still earn the premium forsuch amount of time despite not having assumed any risks relating to theinsurance coverage associated to the movement of the vehicle, such asdamages to third parties' property. Likewise, had the Insurance Companyassumed the risk of earthquake, then it would be entitled to the premiumfor such coverage, even if the vehicle had not been in motion since suchevent would in fact create a risk thereto.

The above example lead us to consider that in order to strike a balancein the economic conditions of the insurance contract according to riskexposure, it is necessary to have an element that allows detailing theconditions of each one of the coverages offered.

Several documents are known in the State of the Art to disclose systemsof calculating insurance premiums. For example Patent Application20040039611 A1 refers to a method and system for reasonably calculatingan automobile insurance premium using a smart card that has storedinformation relating to automobile wear, diagnostic and maintenance.

Patent Application 20050071202 A1 discloses a method and apparatus fordetermining an incremental cost of insurance for the operation of amotor vehicle and billing the same to an operator of the vehicle. Thesystem uses an internal system for determining one or more operationalfactors associated with the vehicle such as geographic location, speed,acceleration, etc. and for recording said information in a database.

As it may be seen, even though there are in fact systems for calculatingpolicy premiums according to the way in which the automobile is operatedby the user, currently there are no systems capable of determiningautonomously the portion usage of an insurance policy in units of timeother than the day and which may be recharged depending on the usage theuser makes of to his/her vehicle.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The system subject matter of the present invention when applied tovehicle insurance, allows the distinction between the states “vehicle inuse” and “vehicle not in use”, discounting the “time consumed” from the“total time” of the insurance, such that the policyholder can know howmuch “available time” of insurance there still is.

For the purposes of the present invention, applied to vehicle insurance,the concept “vehicle in use” relates to the state of a vehicle whoseengine is working or running. The concept “vehicle not in use”corresponds to the state of a vehicle whose engine is turned off or shutoff.

The concept “total time” corresponds to the number of hours initiallyacquired by the policy holder and is calculated as a function of thecharacteristics of the vehicle and other factors which according to eachinsurance company may be useful in determining the cost of suchinsurance. It corresponds as well to the sum of the concepts “availabletime” and “time consumed”.

The concept “available time” corresponds to the subtraction between the“total time” and the “consumed time”. In other words, “available time”refers to that period comprised between the time at which theobservation of the system is carried out by a person and the exhaustionof the same, which circumstance automatically generates the ending ofthe corresponding insurance term.

The concept “time consumed” refers to that period of time elapsedbetween the beginning of the policy term and the time an observation ismade by a person, and whose calculation is carried out as a function ofvehicle “state”. Therefore, for example, depending on the nature of thecoverages and therefore on the risk exposure of the Holder and/orInsurer, the “consumed time” will be greater when the vehicle is foundin a “vehicle in use” state, than that relating to a “vehicle not inuse” state.

The concept “time consumed” can be affected by attenuating oraggravating factors such as for example geographic location, brightnessor climate. Hence, other types of sensors may also be incorporated tocalculate the same.

An object of the present invention is providing a system that managesand controls the information corresponding to the “time consumed” and tothe “available time” of the term of each policy by means that can befound at the premises of the Insurance Company or of third partiesauthorized thereby and in the insured vehicles.

The “total time” acquired for each protected vehicle is subtracted fromthe “total time” acquired by the Insurance Company. Each Insurerdetermines the “total time” for each insured vehicle and thecorresponding cost, which amount is determined as a function of thecharacteristics of each vehicle and any other factors considered in itstechnical notes. The “total time” of each protected vehicle can bededucted from the “total time” of the Insurance Company, thus obtainingthe “available time” of the Insurance Company.

FIG. 1 shows the system object of the invention. In a general manner,the system comprises means for uploading and downloading information ofthe Insurance Company, user means for storing the downloaded informationand consumption control means for controlling the available and consumedtime of the acquired insurance.

The uploading and downloading means 1 corresponds to an interface foruploading the information from the Insurance Company corresponding tothe available time of insurance calculated according to amount of apremium bought by the user with the policy. The user means 2 is insertedin said interface, and delivered to the Holder and/or Insured person andwhich carries the information relating to the “available time” ofinsurance for use by the Holder and/or Insured person.

Said user means 2 is mainly intended to upload and store the “availabletime” of insurance. When in the vehicle of the Holder and/or Insuredperson, its main purpose becomes that of transferring the previouslyuploaded information to the consumption control means 3 installed insidethe insured vehicles.

Said consumption control means 3 is a user interface and is installed inthe vehicle of such user, which is in charge of controlling anddisplaying both the “available time” of valid insurance and the “timeconsumed”. Hence, it is inside said consumption control means 3 that thediscount calculation is made respecting the insured vehicle state (in ornot in use), which is determined by means of a sensor 24. The devicescomprising the means 3 are powered by the regulated voltage of thevehicle battery, further having backup batteries intended to guaranteeproper operation of the system.

As a security feature of the system, only authorized personnel can gainaccess to the software by means of a password. On the other hand, theinformation stored in the user means 2 is encrypted and may only bedecrypted by the Insurance Company software program and the controldevice of the consumption control means 3. The information stored in theuser means 2 can be verified by the software for increased security.Once the “available time” of insurance has been transferred to theconsumption control means 3 of the insured vehicle, the information isdeleted by commands sent therefrom to the user means 2, remaining loadedonly in the memory of the consumption control means 3, preventing thusthe reutilization thereof.

FIG. 2 details a preferred embodiment of the downloading means 1 of theinsurance company. The insurance company's downloading means 1 comprisea plastic receptacle having at least two ports: one corresponding to afemale USB terminal 4 for connecting to the Company's computer and theother being a four-pin male terminal for connecting to the user means 2.Inside there is a control unit 6 that manages bidirectional datatransfer between the software and the user means 2, a USB interfacedevice 8, four indicators (LEDs) 9 for determining the connection of theuser means 2, the communication between the computer and the user means2 and the data transfer in both directions, as well as a memory 7 forstoring relevant data. The power supply of the downloading means of theinsurance company 1 comes from the computer through the USB port 4.

FIG. 3 details preferred user means 2 for use in the system of theminute invention. The user means 2 comprises a plastic receptacle havingat least two connectors: a male USB connector 10, for furtherapplications relating to data transfer via Internet, and the other afour-pin female connector 11 which is associated with a memory 13 foundtherein having a unique position and code for each user. Furthermore, itfeatures a control device 12 that decrypts the information loaded by theinsurance Company and an USB interface device 14. The power supply forthis means comes from the means it connects to, through two pins in eachconnector. For uploading they relate to the USB port (InsuranceCompany's computer power supply) and for downloading they refer to theautomobile device (vehicle battery). Furthermore, the user means 2 mayinclude a display component for displaying relevant data such as the“available time”, even though it may also be possible to display anyother type of information being relevant for the user and/or theinsurance company.

FIG. 4 teaches a preferred embodiment of the consumption control means 3that is part of the system of the present invention. The consumptioncontrol means 3 that is associated in a non-detachable form to theinsured article comprises a plastic receptacle containing a power supplyelement with a voltage regulator 19, a relay 18 determining use ofeither the main battery 16 or backup batteries 17 in case of a failure,a sensor 24 having its respective amplification element 23 fordetermining vehicle state, a memory 22 for storing the data coming fromthe user means 2, a control device 21 for processing input signals and acontrol of the discount display of the “time consumed” (not showed inthis figure). Regarding the interface with the user means 2, there is anLCD 20 having three buttons 25, one for confirming data upload from usermeans 2, another for displaying information of “time consumed” by thevehicle and the third one for turning on the backup light of the LCD fordisplaying in the dark. Even though this preferred embodiment uses anLCD, any other mechanism capable of generating alphanumeric charactersor audiovisual signals may be employed for purposes of displaying userinformation.

The consumption control means 3 further has three additional LED's 26 toindicate different events in its operation. The first one lights up ifthere is an error when connecting to the user means 2 and reading thesame. The second one indicates proper operation of the vehicle statechange detection sensor 24. Finally, the third one only lights up whenthe “available time” of insurance for the vehicle is running out andadvises the user that the acquired policy is nearing expiration. Eventhough the LED's are the elements used in these preferred embodiments,other signaling mechanisms can be used also.

In addition to sensor 24, the consumption control means 3 may furthercomprise other sensors that measure both attenuating and aggravatingfactors in the consumption of the acquired policy, such as geographiclocation, brightness or climate. To this end, it is possible toincorporate other types of sensors allowing the calculation thereof.

It should be noted that the transfer of information between means 1, 2and 3 may be performed via several mechanisms, one of which employsports having one or more pins as shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 (5); (11);(15), using an I2C protocol. This information transfer can also beundertaken by any other wired, wireless or optical means. Likewise theprotocol used for conveying the information can be of a serial orparallel type or of any other type with which the purpose or goal oftransferring information between the means conforming the system isachieved.

The purchase of additional “available time” for a policy can beperformed by the insured person through an Internet web page, making thepayment for said hours, in principle, with a credit card. The transferof said hours to the user means 2 is carried out via the USB port of thecomputer the user is navigating the Internet with (See FIG. 1).

1. A system for measuring the exposure time of the coverages offered byan insurance company, characterized in that it comprises: Uploading anddownloading means (1) comprising a central computer, computers locatedat distributors and a device for transferring the information containedin the event recording means (3) to the computer at the companyheadquarters. User means (2) provided with a USB or mini USB port, apush button, an LCD display, LED's, a non-volatile memory, a device forintegrating a microcontroller with a wireless communication module, anda battery; Event recording means (3) installed in the vehicle, andconnected to the insured object only through its main power supply,being comprised of a power supply element having voltage regulation, arelay, acceleration sensors, non-volatile memory, a device forintegrating activity control and signal processing with wirelesscommunication, the modules and/or modems for said wireless communicationand operation event indicator LED's.
 2. A system according to claim 1,wherein the recording means (3) may comprise sensors for measuringattenuating and/or aggravating factors.
 3. The system according to claim1, characterized in that the information uploading and downloading means(1) allow uploading information relating to the insured object, thepolicyholder and the premium in time units.
 4. The system according toclaim 1, characterized in that the user means (2) processes theinformation collected in the event recording means (3) and determinesthe remaining coverage stated in time units.
 5. The system according toclaim 1, wherein the event recording means (3) allows the distinctionbetween the static or dynamic conditions of the insured object and otherconsumption attenuating or aggravating factors.
 6. The system accordingto claim 2, characterized in that the information uploading anddownloading means (1) allow uploading information relating to theinsured object, the policyholder and the premium in time units.
 7. Thesystem according to claim 2, characterized in that the user means (2)processes the information collected in the event recording means (3) anddetermines the remaining coverage stated in time units.
 8. The systemaccording to claim 3, characterized in that the user means (2) processesthe information collected in the event recording means (3) anddetermines the remaining coverage stated in time units.
 9. The systemaccording to claim 6, characterized in that the user means (2) processesthe information collected in the event recording means (3) anddetermines the remaining coverage stated in time units.
 10. The systemaccording to claim 2, wherein the event recording means (3) allows thedistinction between the static or dynamic conditions of the insuredobject and other consumption attenuating or aggravating factors.
 11. Thesystem according to claim 3, wherein the event recording means (3)allows the distinction between the static or dynamic conditions of theinsured object and other consumption attenuating or aggravating factors.12. The system according to claim 6, wherein the event recording means(3) allows the distinction between the static or dynamic conditions ofthe insured object and other consumption attenuating or aggravatingfactors.